Little People Big Ideas at Crich Tramway Village

What did we do?

Crich Tramway Village identified a need to develop its provision for family audiences, particularly children under five years. Jan Barratt, education manager, had a background in early years work and initially contacted Amber Valley Sure Start to develop an action plan aimed at families who were not regular museum visitors. The plan involved parents acting as consultants and focused on discovering how the museum could improve its facilities and encourage families to become repeat visitors.

Providing free entry to the museum and covering all transport costs ensured the continuing involvement of parents in the project. Meetings with the parent consultants at the museum worked very well. Initially, basic ideas were sought on museums and the barriers that stop those with young children visiting. These included:

• Cost,
• Too many things to break,
• Boring,
• Lack of transport

The discussion developed to look at Crich Tramway Village specifically. The ideas generated were used to create a series of backpacks as dedicated activity resources aimed at the under fives. Once the prototype had been assembled, Crich Tramway Village held a testing day involving 26 adults and 43 children (ranging in age from 6 months to 12 years) piloting the packs around the site.

The packs included activities which involved the whole site, engaging children in the museum's collection and the surrounding natural environment. All backpacks contained a treasure bag for users to collect items to take home at the end of their visit.

Evaluation data from the day was gathered in a variety of ways; parents completed questionnaires, whilst staff observed and recorded the use of the packs around the museum site. The feedback was positive and suggested that the packs should include resources which were inexpensive and readily replaceable, as some damage and loss would be inevitable.

The testing day also highlighted additional elements the museum had not been expecting, for example, the importance of checking fencing, improvements to signage and ensuring that activities were at the correct height for pre-school children.  

The backpacks were adjusted to reflect the feedback and a smaller group of parents commented on the revised version of the packs. This led to a final testing session, where a new group of users tested the final version. Feedback was excellent and 30 backpacks are now an integral part of the resources available to visitors.

The packs are now available free of charge (with a returnable £5 deposit) to families and pre booked education groups. The project will involve ongoing low revenue costs to replace elements of the packs which become broken or missing though use.

As a result of the project, more preschool groups and families are visiting Crich Tramway Village, and visits tend to be longer.

Learning outcomes

• The project has contributed to the knowledge and skills of staff at the museum; this was a new area of work for the majority of the education team and it proved a steep but very enjoyable learning curve,
• It helped develop sustainable learning resources aimed at pre school children for use by families and groups;
• It increased the museum's links with local Sure Start programmes,
• New users were introduced to the site through the work with the Sure Start families,
• The project gave the museum a new perspective on resources it provides for families,
• It resulted in an increase in visits by pre-school children, family and groups, 
• It developed knowledge and skills for staff in working with the Foundation Curriculum and with pre school children,
• It helped to develop confidence within the museum to run further learning projects.